Technical Field
The present invention concerns an apparatus for producing reinforcement cages for pylon segments. It concerns in particular an apparatus for producing reinforcement cages for pylon segments of wind power installations.
Description of the Related Art
Pylons as are used inter alia for wind power installations often have a wall of concrete or steel reinforced concrete. Particularly in the case of dynamically loaded pylons, which involves most pylons due to the influences of the wind, stiffening structures, so-called reinforcement cages, are additionally provided in the interior of the pylon wall to improve stability. In that case the construction of a pylon is made up segment-wise, that is to say a pylon is includes a plurality of substantially annular pylon segments which are to be placed one upon the other.
In the production of such pylon segments firstly the reinforcement cage is produced and then concrete is introduced around it in molds provided for that purpose, and the concrete is set.
In known apparatuses for producing reinforcement cages for pylon segments, there is provided a carrier structure which holds a plurality of bars, so-called combs or rakes. Those bars each have receiving means for receiving steel wires, the steel wires being passed around the carrier structure to form ring elements. Those ring elements, stabilized by the bars, are tied to steel elements which extend in orthogonal relationship therewith and which are pre-shaped in an arcuate configuration, thereby producing a grid-form reinforcement cage. The reinforcement wires are either passed in a circular movement around a stationary carrier structure or, and this is preferred, they are disposed in a stationary feed device and are pulled out of the receiving means by the carrier structure which is drivable in rotation, and are applied, as a result of the rotational movement of the carrier structure, in a ring form around same. Throughout the entire time the form of the ring-form steel wires is stabilized by the carrier structure and the bars by means of a plurality of spokes extending between the carrier structure and the bars. To remove the reinforcement cages from the apparatus the spokes in the known system have to be respectively removed or the stabilizing bars have to be hooked individually and manually out of the steel wires.
While the apparatuses operating in that way generally provide reinforcement cages of satisfactory quality, the fact that in that case a high degree of manual work is required, in particular for releasing the reinforcement cages from the apparatuses, is viewed as a disadvantage.